1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system and, more particularly, to an image forming system and image forming apparatus for forming a hard copy of an image or the like captured by, e.g., a digital camera.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a system in which an input image from a digital input device, such as a scanner, a digital camera, or the like, is printed via a host such as a personal computer (PC), is known. In such system, the host has drivers for independently controlling the digital input device and printer. For this reason, an input from the digital input device is saved as data in the format which is easiest to use and displayed on the host. Upon printing, the user observes the state of the saved image and selects a proper printing control method or image processing method.
For this reason, if the host can cope with color image data, even a monochrome sensed image is saved as a color image and is unwantedly printed using color inks. Also, even a low-resolution image, such as a thumbnail image, is printed in a high-quality mode depending on its saving condition. In this manner, since image data is saved in the format suitable for the host, an image formed based on the saved image data becomes different from the input one, and consequently, extra processing that is not required originally must often be performed. Furthermore, when an input image is saved in the host, extra processing for converting it into a format suitable for the host is required.